Excerpt from the third draft of An Earthling’s Guide to the Larger Universe

Affinity Classification: Advanced Affinities

The common definition of Advanced Affinities is that they are Affinities which require a Basic Affinity and at least one other Affinity combined together. This is not completely accurate; many “advanced” Affinities do not have a common Basic Affinity along with them - both Mind and Time are good examples of this; they are difficult enough that very, very few people ever get them as starting Affinities.

The “standard” array of advanced Affinities for non-specialized spellcasters is:

Elemental (Physical) Affinities

Plasma, Liquid, Vapor, Solid

These are the affinities of the physical world - of inanimate matter.

Essential (Non-Physical or Personal) Affinities

Life, Death, Mind, Arcane

These are the affinities that separate creatures from inanimate matter. This list is especially interesting, since only creatures whose vital affinity is Life (the living) or Death (or Undeath; oddly enough, both are called undead) are named; all others, including ones not on this list, are considered elementals. There are even creatures of Life or Death that are considered elementals (all creatures of Undeath are undead); Life or Death elementals generally lack a physical form other than their Affinity.

Universal (Non-Personal) Affinities

Energy, Void, Time, Space

These are the affinities that have to do with the universe, beyond physical matter.

There are many “advanced” affinities that are not on the standard list; even some of the ones that are on the list can be combined together to form other advanced affinities. The main advantage of the standard model is that it gives a place to start when learning from others.

A late breakfast turned into lunch when Serenity realized how late it had gotten. Echo and Doyle joined in at the end, along with everyone else in the Settlement. After the meal, Echo finally had the chance to lead Serenity to the Settlement’s dungeon area.

It was another treehouse, set a little ways away from all of the inhabited treehouses, but there was a solid path along branches that led from the kitchen to the dungeon treehouse. It had a large set of double doors; beyond them was an empty wooden room. Three doors other than the entryway led out of the room; to the left and forward were large double doors, but to the right, the door was small.

Serenity looked around; each of the doors was as plain as the room. “This is a dungeon?” It didn’t feel like a dungeon; the mana density was still too low.

“It’s the entrance. Only one of the doors works; the other just says it’s locked. That’s another reason I wanted you here, I think you’re needed to unlock it. I don’t see any other dungeons in the Settlement menu, the way the Settlement Gardens appeared. This was one of the first things I bought with the settlement points, after a place to sleep that first night.”

Echo paced over to the door on the left. She didn’t quite seem to be her usual bouncy self. “I didn’t think it was a dungeon at first; it’s not like the ones in the Tutorial.”

Serenity watched as she pushed the door open. He could see why she didn’t think it was much like the dungeons; both the Trials and the Great Tutorial Dungeon used a portal-style entrance, while this was a door that seemed to open to the outside. Yet it was an outside that couldn’t be there; they were thirty or forty feet up in a tree, not at ground level of a greenspace.

Serenity stepped through the door and felt the mana level increase from acceptable to positively comfortable; not only was he not bleeding mana and essence, but he could actually feel it around himself, helping to sustain him. He could feel the warmth of a sun he couldn’t see on his face; as he looked up, there was a bright spot, but nothing near the intensity of the Sun.

He’d have spread his wings if he had them, but he hadn’t taken the time to change back from his human shape. It didn’t seem worthwhile when he’d had to sit in a chair with a back in the dining hall.

“It’s nice in here.” Serenity realized he was grinning as he turned to face Echo and Doyle, who were both staring at him in shock. “What?”

“It’s oppressive, chilly, and dark,” Doyle stated flatly. “We come in here every day to get food, not because it’s nice. Why is it different for you?”

“That’s one of the reasons I wanted you in here. But if you like it, then…” Echo trailed off. She sounded uncertain and younger than her usually confident self.

Serenity frowned. It sounded like he was having a completely different experience than they were. Dark didn’t really matter to him, but it didn’t seem dark at all; it seemed oddly well lit. The same for the temperature, it was on the brisk end, but nothing a light jacket wouldn’t handle, even without his Cold Resistance. He wasn’t certain what Doyle meant by oppressive.

There was a way he could find out. Back in the Tutorial, Echo had helped feed him after the incident with Rissa; that should mean that he could link to her senses. “Can I look through your eyes?”

When Echo’s face scrunched, Serenity hurried to explain. “An ability from one of my paths, it lets me share my vision with people I can link with. And I know I can link with you, that’s how I was able to pull mana from you back then.”

Echo’s face lightened. It was like seeing the Sun come out. “Of course!” She skipped over to Serenity and held her hand out to him.

It was too bad that he couldn’t do it at a distance, the way he could with Rissa, but that didn’t work with Echo. When Serenity took her hand, he set up the link. As long as he was using her sight, she might as well have access to his as well.

When he looked through her eyes, the place looked completely different; there was no bright spot in the sky, and the area was shrouded in a dense mist that made anything beyond about ten feet seem shadowy or invisible.

“Oh wow! I see why you like this!” Echo bounced and started forward, only to stop suddenly. “Ooh, that’s weird, seeing through your eyes while I try to walk.”

Serenity dropped his grip on Echo’s hand, allowing the link to drop at the same time. “Yeah. I see why you don’t like it, too. Have you found the dungeon core?”

Echo shook her head vigorously. “Nope. But we haven’t really looked, either, with the mist. It’s just been these nearby areas, where the plants and chickens and goats are.” She pointed at a small set of plots not far ahead of them where some plants were evenly spaced; beyond them, Serenity saw a pen full of goats. Chickens walked all over the farmed area, occasionally pecking for bugs.

“I’m surprised there aren’t rabbits,” Serenity muttered. There were usually rabbits wherever he saw a garden, but he didn’t see any now.

“I wouldn’t want rabbits,” Doyle commented. “Good eating but they are too hard on some crops. We’d have to keep them in a hutch.”

Serenity nodded. “I need to find the core, see if I can figure out why we see things so differently. Once that’s taken care of, we can see if it’s possible to add some variety. At least there’s a good chance nothing here is actively hostile.”

For Serenity, it was a nice hike through a beautiful day. For the other two, it was far less pleasant. Serenity had them stay behind as he left the area they’d explored previously. He told them it was so that he could travel faster, but it was mostly because he could see how uncomfortable they were getting.

It wasn’t just the dark and the mist. They acted as though they were slogging through mud, but mud of the mind instead of the body. The farther they got from the entrance, the slower they walked. It had to be whatever Doyle meant when he said “oppressive”.

Serenity was confident Echo knew the real reason he’d left them behind; Doyle probably did as well. Neither of them challenged his decision.

Serenity’s best guess was that the dungeon core would be straight back from the entrance, so he headed that direction. About an hour after he left the other two (63 minutes by his phone’s clock), Serenity saw a small dip in the landscape; in the dip was a pedestal with an amethyst stone on it.

When Serenity put his hand on the dungeon core, there was a brief, sharp pain in his head, then everything stopped and he realized he was seeing the dungeon from the core’s perspective instead of his own. He tried to speak to the core. “Hello?”

There was no response.

“Anyone there?”

Belatedly, text appeared in front of him.

[There is no separate personality in this dungeon core. It has been bound to you since the moment it came into existence; there has been no opportunity for another sentience to inhabit it]

That was too bad; Serenity had wanted to ask it why it’d made the decisions it had and try to get it to make it more comfortable for others. Maybe he could ask the Voice?

How do I change things, then?

[The same way any dungeon core] the Voice’s voice stopped. Serenity had never seen it cut off in the middle of a sentence before. It didn’t say anything else, but a menu appeared in front of Serenity.

[Serenity Settlement Gardens]

[Danger Level: 1 (Minimal)]

[Variety]

[Weather]

[Structures]

[Status]

[Spawn]

Each of the options could be changed.

Strangely, the name also seemed to have a location option; it was set to “Standard Dungeon Door”, but it looked like he could probably change that in the future. Most of the options were grayed out; the only one that wasn’t was “Forest Floor”, which didn’t seem like the best place to have a garden. A separate dimension like this seemed better.

The name section was also where he could add people to be able to manage the dungeon. Serenity added Echo, Doyle, and Missy. Missy would probably be the one to do most things, since she seemed to be the expert, but this way she’d have a backup.

The “danger level” of 1 seemed to be the minimum; Serenity didn’t see any reason to take it higher.

The “Variety” tab showed what the dungeon “knew” how to make, but it didn’t give any option to make things. There were only three animals on the list - goats, chickens, and wolf spiders. There were a few more plants, but (other than four types of grass and two types of tree), Serenity recognized them all as the ones he’d been eating. He could see a number of things he might be able to unlock, but there was a small note at the bottom of the list that was interesting: Additional varieties may be learned from examples.

“Weather” explained why he was having such a different experience from everyone else; there were four different weather settings. “Garden” seemed to be the weather he was seeing and presumably what the plants felt as well. “Resident” was what Echo and Doyle saw. The other two sets were labeled “Stranger” and “Invader”; Stranger seemed to be set to the same chilly mist as Resident, but Invader had a thunderstorm.

The most interesting option in Weather was Environmental Weight. It was set to “normal” for Garden, but Resident had it set to “gradient”. Serenity could imagine what that meant; it explained why Echo and Doyle had moved slower and slower as they moved away from the entrance.

Serenity smiled and shook his head, then changed everything under “Resident” to match “Garden”. That way, he’d know if they were considered Residents or Strangers, but he bet they were in the Resident category.

Structures was as straightforward as it sounded; the only surprise was that it included supports for plants, fences, and animal pens as well as buildings for people. Like Varieties, it listed what was known but didn’t have a way to make it.

Status showed where everything was. Serenity could see that Echo and Doyle were headed towards him. They seemed to be moving fairly quickly, but they were still closer than he’d expected. They’d probably continued after he left them behind; that explained why they hadn’t argued.

Spawn was the missing option; it would let him create animals, plants, monsters, or structures.

It was interesting that there were no options to increase the space available or dig down, but they simply weren’t there. In that way, this dungeon was like the Safe Rest he’d made on Tzintkra; it was limited to its original space. Unless …. Perhaps one of the options that would move it to a new location had more room?